Road Trip Day 6: Nauvoo

 This was a GREAT day!

We toured Nauvoo, of course, and at night did The Trail of Hope walk.

Wagon ride through Old Nauvoo:

Pioneer games- Claire won the stick pull handily.

A carriage ride, which is different than the wagon ride.

We took the temple tour, where we learned how the limestone was cut and the girls got to try their hand at it.

Some of the performance missionaries. They are absolutely lovely people!

John Taylor house. He was embarrassed by the opulence of the house- he was perfectly happy with the log cabin. But Joseph wanted him next to the printing press to protect it, so he got the nice house. He took out an ad in the paper saying he doesn't care about worldly goods, only the building up of Zion.

Brigham Young house:

Here's maps of our ancestors' houses on the Allred side:

And me standing on the Allred land- where their cabin once was. Unfortunatley, the bugs were again awful (they were SO bad!) so while I wanted a nice spiritual moment, it was more a couple of seconds.

Trail of Hope- the performance missionaries were lined up and about every 30 yards we stopped and they told us a story of the pioneers. It was beautiful as we walked the route the saints walked as they were forced out of Nauvoo.

Thinking of my ancestors walking down this path as they were kicked out of Nauvoo in the dead of winter was really powerful. Walking where they walked was awesome.

This is my favorite picture.

Road Trip Day 5: Nauvoo

 Our first day in Nauvoo was a mixed bag.

We had temple appointments. I had an endowment session in the morning. I LOVE the Nauvoo Temple. It is the most beautiful temple, absolutely stunning sitting up on the hill. It's a pretty run down town, so it really stands out as this stunning building. I am so glad I got to do a session there.

But, while I was there, I dropped the girls off in Old Town Nauvoo, which is where the Church owns the historic lands where the saints lived, so they could see the cabins and such. Unfortunately, since none of them are 18, they weren't allowed to do anything. I think it's a bit silly. Maybe ridiculous. Audra is 16 and can drive a car, but she can't take a wagon ride? At any rate, they pretty much just sat in the shade for 2 hours waiting for me to return, which is really lame.

After I came back, we got lunch, and then Audra and Claire had a baptistry appointment at the temple. They said it was gorgeous and really big, but the gentleman baptizing them kept trying to drown them and really shoved them deep down in the water.

Camille and I went to see a possible site of a Smith Family Tomb (that was never used) and had some time together. We went to the Family History Center and discovered that my 5th great grandpa William Allred and his wife Orissa Bates lived directly across from the Visitor's Center, where the Performance Missionaries performed. Pretty cool.

When the baptisms were done, we all went to the Skovill Bakery. Then at night we saw Performance Missionaries- they were definitely the highlight! They are wonderful! I really hope that one of my girls eventually becomes a performance missionary. They bring so much joy!

We went here for a buffet dinner. It was OK. Our waitress is a high school student- she said there are 50 in her graduating class, and that includes Nauvoo and a neighboring town. She said she is excited to get out of Nauvoo.